US Airways Announces More Job Cuts

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) Bankrupt US Airways said Monday it will
lay off an additional 642 employees next month as it works to reduce its flight schedule by 13 percent.

The latest job cuts, which will be confined to fleet and customer service areas, follow the airline`s decision to lay off about 1,400 workers by December.

“In any reorganization, furloughs are a reality,” airline spokeswoman Tammy Lee said. “They`re an unfortunate reality, but these reductions are tied to aircraft and capacity reductions which have been part of the restructuring plan from the beginning.”
Laid off will be 319 fleet service workers and 323 customer service employees, Lee said. The largest cuts will be in the airline`s Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C. hubs. The cuts amount to about 2 percent of US Airways` 35,000 employees.
Arlington-based US Airways, the nation`s seventh-largest carrier, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August. The company, which had already reduced its capacity by 23 percent following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, had warned employees and customers that further reductions were likely.

In addition to cutting daily departures from 1,550 to 1,350 by the end of the year, the airline is seeking to pare its fleet by 10 percent, or 31 jets.

Also on Monday, the carrier and United Airlines announced that they would begin offering frequent-flier mileage benefits on each other`s flights beginning Nov. 1. Last week, federal regulators approved the airlines` request to sell seats on each other`s flights as part of a codeshare agreement.